Semalle's photographs are the first comprehensive record of surviving wooden architecture in Yuanmingyuan. Unfortunately, all of these constructions were believed to have been destroyed in war around 1900, when the Eight-Nation Alliance Force attacked Beijing.

Other key figures from the 19th century contributing to these precious photographic records include Lai Afong, a Hong Kong-based photographer, Ernst Ohlmer from Germany, Osvald Siren, a Swedish scholar, and Thomas Child, a British man who lived in Beijing for 20 years.

Thanks to them, people can now get a glimpse of how Xiyang Lou (Western Mansions)－a combination of the Western Baroque style and traditional Chinese architecture, and an iconic symbol of today's Yuanmingyuan ruins－looked in the 19th century.

It appears that some of the structures disappeared later than people originally thought. A recently released photo from the 1920s shows an exquisite statue of Manjusri Bodhisattva, a Buddhist deity, at Zhengjue Temple, a rare example of a well-preserved structure in Yuanmingyuan. However, this statue was gone by the early 1930s.

He Yu, a history professor at Renmin University of China, said looters brought further misery to the Yuanmingyuan ruins in the early 20th century. In addition, the layout of Yuanmingyuan was also altered due to later urban development.

"All of the texts and all of our imagination could not compete with the real Yuanmingyuan represented by the photos," He said.

"The site suffered from major upheavals even after 1860. These photos not only provide abundant historical information, but also remind us of how it gradually fell into ruin."

Much effort has been taken to protect Yuanmingyuan since 1976, when the administration of the ruins was established. A current focus of the administration's work is to restore the original landscape, vegetation and the layout of the waters in Yuanmingyuan, said Li, deputy director of the administration.

These photos are of immense value to people today who are striving to restore some of the former glory to Yuanmingyuan.

"These will greatly help our effort to look for lost relics and partially restore the appearance of Yuanmingyuan," Li said.

This work is already taking place, with December's launch of the project to restore unearthed glazed tiles in the Xiyang Lou area by using some photos taken in 1873 as reference.

Li added that more old photos shedding light on the past glory of Yuanmingyuan will be publicly exhibited in the future.

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